The Health Risks of Smoking

Do you have any idea which smoking-related disease is the number one cause of death among smokers? If you’re thinking it’s lung cancer or COPD/emphysema, you’re wrong. While both of these smoking-related diseases do claim a lot of lives, it is heart disease that that holds the top slot in the list of diseases that kill smokers.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States today, and the leading cause of death among smokers. And, on a global level, researchers report that there were 1,690,000 premature deaths from cardiovascular disease among smokers in the year 2000. In contrast, there were approximately 850,000 lung cancer deaths during the same year, and 118,000 COPD deaths from smoking in 2001, worldwide.

Smoking is hard on the heart, but the fact is, tobacco use plays a role in a multitude of diseases that ultimately lead to disability and/or death. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds; 200 of which are known to be poisonous, and upwards of 60 have been identified as carcinogens. Viewed in that light, it’s no wonder that the effects of smoking are so widespread and destructive.

Let’s take a look at how cigarette smoke affects our bodies, from head to toe. You may be surprised at some of the ways smoking has a negative impact on our health.

The effects of smoking hold additional risks for women. Those who smoke throughout their pregnancies increase the risk of:

Spontaneous abortion/miscarriage

Ectopic pregnancy

Abruptio placentae

Placenta previa

Premature rupture of the membranes

Premature birth

Risks to the fetus include:

Smaller infant(for gestational age)

Stillborn infant

Birth defects, e.g. congenital limb reduction

Increased nicotine receptors in baby’s brain

Increased likelihood of child smoking as a teenager

Possible predisposition to adult anxiety disorders

As long as this list of diseases known to be associated with smoking is, it is incomplete. We don’t yet fully understand all of the dangers that cigarette smoke presents, but research continues, bringing us new discoveries seemingly by the day.

One thing is certain: Cigarettes snuff out life at an alarming rate. Statistics tell us that upwards of half of long-term smokers will die a smoking-related death. And globally, that presently translates to nearly 5 million deaths a year. Put another way, someone loses their life to smoking every 8 seconds somewhere in the world.

If you currently smoke, use this information to help you see your smoking habit for what it is – a deadly addiction that you can live without. The tools here at About.com Smoking Cessation are designed to help you learn what nicotine addiction involves and what it takes to quit smoking.

Also, stop in and visit our support forum here at About.com Smoking Cessation. This very active community of people quitting tobacco has new members joining daily, and the support is some of the best I’ve seen anywhere online, or in real life, for that matter.

Browse through and read messages as a guest, or register (free) to post comments of your own.

As humans, we are incredibly resilient. While not all smoking damage is reversible, so much can be healed, even after years of smoking.

Don’t ever think it’s too late for you to quit smoking, and please…don’t waste any more of your life on cigarettes. Smoking offers you absolutely nothing of value.

Take back your life. You deserve the freedom and long-lasting benefits that smoking cessation brings.

First, say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. Health Service Food and Human Resources: HamePage: cigs4us.biz

Famous quotes

The only ’safer’ cigarette is your last one.Duane Alan Hahn
.................................
You own yourself, so if you want to do something that destroys yourself, go ahead. Just don’t harm others when you do.Jim Goebel
.................................
To see what is right, and not do it, is want of courage, or of principle.Confucius
.................................
If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer. Clement Freud
.................................
Smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.King James I of England
.................................
Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life. Brooke Shields
.................................
I’ll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It cost a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It’s addictive. And there’s a fantastic brand loyalty.Warren Buffett
.................................
If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer. Clement Freud
.................................
Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.Mark TwainRead more stop smoking quotes